Scottish socialists hope message will survive without messenger

For a party that has revelled in shaking up Scotland's political establishment, it has been a sobering few weeks. A whiff of scandal, the resignation of a leader, bitter in-fighting: the troubles afflicting the Scottish Socialist party are those more often associated with its rivals.

It began with the party's convener, Tommy Sheridan, announcing that he was stepping down to spend more time with his pregnant wife, Gail.

He dismissed rumours about his private life as "pish", and denied he had been about to face a leadership challenge and was under pressure from colleagues to quit. Then came tabloid allegations that Mr Sheridan, 40, had had an affair with a party activist, a claim which he has denied and on which he is to take legal action.

Meanwhile, whispers grew of something akin to a coup in the party, which has made a virtue of its collectivism and long boasted of its close bonds.

It was with a less than a united front that the party faced the press last week to announce Mr Sheridan's five colleagues at Holyrood would share the leadership until they decided early next year what to do about replacing him.

For all their kind words about the trail he had blazed at Holyrood, his comrades declined to offer him their support.

The rancour and sniping have continued over at the weekend, and further revelations are expected this week.

Those outside the SSP are asking not only whether the party can come through its crisis, but whether it can survive in the longer term without Mr Sheridan at the helm.

He has led the party, which has had a prominence out of all proportion to its size, since it was formed five years ago.

Perma-tanned, sharp-suited, articulate, he became one of the best known politicians in Scotland and beyond.

His resignation as convener, forced or not, was a grievous blow, and party officials have admitted as much.

But they insist that his going is not insurmountable.

Alan McCombes, the party's policy coordinator, said: "There is the argument that without Tommy the SSP is nothing. We would argue quite vehemently that is an insult to the intelligence of the 150,000 people who vote consistently for the SSP.

"The idea that they vote because of Tommy's good looks or his charm is ludicrous. Tommy has been a great messenger but people are voting for the message not the messenger."

In some ways, he said, the traumas of the past few weeks and the fascination with them had been a rite of passage, proof that the SSP was indeed an established force in Scottish politics.

"I think it does show we are an established party," he said. "[Tommy's resignation] closes one chapter and opens a new one.

"In a sense it does not mark a seismic shift, it certainly does not mark any shift in political direction for the SSP, no matter who replaces Tommy, because the politics of the party are determined by the membership rather than by the leader."

It is still not clear how the party would replace Mr Sheridan, who is staying on as an MSP for Glasgow, but one option being considered is a permanent collective leadership, excluding Mr Sheridan.

The idea has been dismissed by some as Monty Pythonesque and unworkable, but others say it could prove an effective solution.

Since they joined him at Holyrood last year, Mr Sheridan's colleagues, such as Rosie Kane, have made a name for themselves as confident and media-savvy parliamentarians.

"If there is a collective leadership in the SSP, it might work," said Peter Lynch, lecturer in politics at Stirling University.

"Sheridan is in the lucky position of having replacements and when you have a group of them, it might be good. If it works it's great, but if there is a problem for them people will pile in on it. Journalists will try to split them up."

Mr McCombes said that to ridicule the notion of collective leadership was to misunderstand the nature of socialist politics.

"We have never defined Tommy as party leader, because we are a socialist party and a very egalitarian and collective party," he said.

"Tommy's role as convener was largely as a figurehead. In contrast to the big parties, our party convener did not and will not have any additional powers. Tommy has got one vote the same as everybody else."

Others, such as John Curtice, Scotland's leading electoral expert, have said that the party might find it hard to sustain its position without Mr Sheridan at the helm, and could potentially lose seats at the next Holyrood election in 2007.

The SSP, he said, was born from an alliance of the various far-left factions in Scotland, a union in which Mr Sheridan had played a key role.